Overpriced Used Gaming PC?

[Andrizzle]

Okay so I'm back once again to ask how overpriced a craigslist gaming pc is.

 

So, here's the deal.

 

I'm looking for a low cost gaming PC. I don't really have that much extra cash, since im living the broke college kid life. But, my laptop is starting to die on me and I'd like to move a little bit more over to pc gaming. Right now i game a little bit on the ps4 and a LOT on the switch. I would mostly be looking at playing indie games, and some older AAA games, and maybe Overwatch if i get back into that. I also do a lot of work in Photoshop and Illustrator.

 

So, cutting to the chase, I found an affordable pc on craigslist (Linked Here - <referral link removed (owner removed ad)>)

 

Intel CPU X3450 @ 3.8GHz with 4Cores and 8Threads
RAM -8GB DDR3 1600MHz
GPU- MSI ARMOR RX 480 OC 4GB
PSU- Insignia 520W ATX Power Supply
MOBO- Gigabyte H55M-UD2H
STORAGE- 240GB SATA 3 SSD

 

I'm worried that the X3450 would be a bottleneck, and since it's a server CPU, if that would be an issue. It's got slightly higher scores than my Laptop's cpu according to PassMark. My laptop runs photoshop and illustrator very well, and can play overwatch on Low settings....with a little lag here and there. 

 

I'm fine with 1080p gaming, I've never found that much a difference between 4k and 1080p so. Not a problem for me

 

Any advice would be appreciated. I tried building this on PC Part Picker, but couldnt find the CPU

[emosun]

the cpu isn't great but the machine is only 400$ total so not the worst deal ever

I'm sure if you found a 200$ workstation on ebay and a 200$ gpu to stuff in it you could get something faster that route.

[dizmo]

Seems super overpriced. Check out Reddit. You can likely piece together something a lot cheaper than that.

The CPU is far too old to be on PCPartPicker.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($149.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Patriot - Viper 4 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($57.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: ADATA - XPG SX850 128 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($24.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($44.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX - Radeon RX 580 4 GB Video Card  ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair - Carbide SPEC-04 TG ATX Mid Tower Case  ($43.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($16.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $577.63

 

If you pick up the video card on eBay, should be about $100ish maybe a little more if you score a decent deal. They also go super cheap on Reddit.

You should be able to find a used CPU...even the older B350/first gen Ryzen stuff goes cheap.

[mxk]

Just now, dizmo said:

Seems super overpriced. Check out Reddit. You can likely piece together something a lot cheaper than that.

The CPU is far too old to be on PCPartPicker.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($149.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Patriot - Viper 4 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($57.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: ADATA - XPG SX850 128 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($24.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($44.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX - Radeon RX 580 4 GB Video Card  ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair - Carbide SPEC-04 TG ATX Mid Tower Case  ($43.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($16.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $577.63

 

If you pick up the video card on eBay, should be about $100ish maybe a little more if you score a decent deal. They also go super cheap on Reddit.

You should be able to find a used CPU...even the older B350/first gen Ryzen stuff goes cheap.

reason behind the 2400g? Just curious.

[dizmo]

Just now, mxk. said:

reason behind the 2400g? Just curious.

Same price as the 1600/2600, faster base clock.

[Andrizzle]

How much would you say this build is worth? What price should I haggle him down to (or try at least)

[emosun]

Just now, Andrizzle said:

How much would you say this build is worth? What price should I haggle him down to (or try at least)

offer 250

or for 400 build something else

[mxk]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

Same price as the 1600/2600, faster base clock.

wouldn't the extra cores help from the 1600/2600? Or does the clock speed help pull ahead that much?

[emosun]

2 minutes ago, mxk. said:

wouldn't the extra cores help from the 1600/2600? Or does the clock speed help pull ahead that much?

depends if you live in the year 2007 where software doesn't support multiple cores

I know some people still live in the past when it come to multicore tech these days

[mxk]

1 minute ago, emosun said:

depends if you live in the year 2007 where software doesn't support multiple cores

I know some people still live in the past when it come to multicore tech these days

k then

[ahuckphin]

The Craglist seller knows his thing. Illumination on a case is a definite mark up and the PSU is sketchy. 

[Andrizzle]

Just messaged the guy, apparently it's sold, so This was all for nothing.

 

 

 

Woo

[dizmo]

14 minutes ago, mxk. said:

wouldn't the extra cores help from the 1600/2600? Or does the clock speed help pull ahead that much?

Ahhh foolish me thinking AMD would have made sense when naming their products...assumed the 5 would have 6 cores.

[Slayer3032]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100-original-Free-shipping-motherboard-for-Gigabyte-GA-H55M-UD2H-H55M-UD2H-DDR3-LGA-1156-free/32277789627.html -- $70

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-X3450-SLBLD-LGA-1156-2-66GHz-Quad-Core/273696311292 -- $19

https://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-GDDR5-DVI-D-Graphics/dp/B07MCDNQX2 -- $100

https://fortwayne.craigslist.org/sop/d/columbia-city-hyperx-8gb2x4gb-ddr3/6811806157.html -- $35 (sure there's better deals out there, I got 6x4gb of ECC for $52)

https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-240GB-Solid-SA400S37-240G/dp/B01N5IB20Q/ -- $30

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811353159 -- $40

https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=100-BR-0450-RX -- $25

https://www.amazon.com/Enermax-Cooler-130W-Intel-Support/dp/B014W1Y0YO/ -- $20 

 

$340 is about how much it would take to build about the same thing. I'm sure you could find a less trash LGA1156 motherboard for half the price at least and 8gb of DDR3 for $20-30 and skirt in right about $300.

[LogicWeasel]

17 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Same price as the 1600/2600, faster base clock.

Call me crazy but in 2019 if I'm going to spend (or mock-up a build) over $140 on a CPU, I'd want it to either have 6 cores / 12 threads (thanks AMD), or in a case where you're after pure high base clock, I guess that means an Intel i3-8100 is likely better value if you don't need to use the GPU on the 2400G.

[Andrizzle]

While I have you all here, Could I get your opinion on this pc?

 

https://fortwayne.craigslist.org/sys/d/angola-low-end-gaming-pc-mouse/6815072076.html

[Slayer3032]

1 minute ago, LogicWeasel said:

Call me crazy but in 2019 if I'm going to spend (or mock-up a build) over $140 on a CPU, I'd want it to either have 6 cores / 12 threads (thanks AMD), or in a case where you're after pure high base clock, I guess that means an Intel i3-8100 is likely better value if you don't need to use the GPU on the 2400G.

Ryzen 5 2600's are $149.99 on Amazon with Division 2 as a free gift, I wouldn't suggest anyone buy the 2400G unless they intend to use the integrated.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B41WS48/

[LogicWeasel]

41 minutes ago, Andrizzle said:

While I have you all here, Could I get your opinion on this pc?

 

https://fortwayne.craigslist.org/sys/d/angola-low-end-gaming-pc-mouse/6815072076.html

If it looks like enough computer, it'd consider offering $250 for it, the CPU is at least better than that last build and this has less markup, but your GPU is weaker of course.  At least the PSU is name brand if indeed that has an EVGA like they claim.  Could likely even squeak an RX 570 or similar into that build with that PSU if you had to (not ideal, but if you didn't add any extra load to the PSU it'd work).

[Andrizzle]

Overwatch is probably the most demanding game I plan on playing in the forseeable future, do you think this build would be able to run it moderately well? 

[LogicWeasel]

5 minutes ago, Andrizzle said:

Overwatch is probably the most demanding game I plan on playing in the forseeable future, do you think this build would be able to run it moderately well? 

If by moderately well you mean 60fps 1080p but you may have to lower the quality to medium-low, then yeah probably.  According to the system requirements for Overwatch they name the GTX 660 as the lowest recommended GPU, so you're cutting it close.  It should at very least not be a stuttering mess, but don't expect smooth gaming on maximum gfx settings. 

 

By modern comparison the 660 Ti trades blows (within 5% performance) of the GTX 1050 Ti so think entry-level gaming performance.

[Slayer3032]

42 minutes ago, Andrizzle said:

While I have you all here, Could I get your opinion on this pc?

 

https://fortwayne.craigslist.org/sys/d/angola-low-end-gaming-pc-mouse/6815072076.html

Non hyperthreaded locked i5, with mismatched ram on a Z77 overclocking capable motherboard, trash tier everything else with a filthy case and setup that had zero effort put into attempting to sell. Case is probably destroyed and covered in swirls and scratches on the cheap glossy plastic. Only parts from that worth more than $10-20 is the motherboard and GPU.

[Andrizzle]

29 minutes ago, LogicWeasel said:

If by moderately well you mean 60fps 1080p but you may have to lower the quality to medium-low, then yeah probably.  According to the system requirements for Overwatch they name the GTX 660 as the lowest recommended GPU, so you're cutting it close.  It should at very least not be a stuttering mess, but don't expect smooth gaming on maximum gfx settings.

Oh I'm not expecting Smooth Max Ultra settings or anything. To be clear, I'm looking for something that games better than my Laptop from 2014. So... Lmao

 

28 minutes ago, Slayer3032 said:

Non hyperthreaded locked i5, with mismatched ram on a Z77 overclocking capable motherboard, trash tier everything else with a filthy case and setup that had zero effort put into attempting to sell. Case is probably destroyed and covered in swirls and scratches on the cheap glossy plastic. Only parts from that worth more than $10-20 is the motherboard and GPU.

I love your brutal honesty *heart eyes emoji*

 

Ive decided it's a much better use of my money to try and build Austin Evan's Boson 4.0 build from used parts, rather than trying to deal with the scammers on craigslist. 

 

Someone please tell me if I'm wasting my time with this idea

[Atra1n2]

@Andrizzle you can find fairly cheap pre-built tier 1 branded (hp, dell, acer) office-type PCs on ebay with 3rd generation i5s. I bought a slim form factor HP with an i5-3450, with 8gb ram, 1tb HDD, and no OS. I used the old Win 7 COA sticker to obtain an OS then used Windows 10 upgrade. I added an SSD for the boot drive and a GTX 1050 ti slim form factor so I wouldn't have to upgrade the PSU and came in well under $400. I think the PC was $120, $70 for the SSD and $150 for the GTX 1050 ti. It runs most games at med-high setting at or around 60 fps.

[Andrizzle]

1 minute ago, Atra1n2 said:

@Andrizzle you can find fairly cheap pre-built tier 1 branded (hp, dell, acer) office-type PCs on ebay with 3rd generation i5s. I bought a slim form factor HP with an i5-3450, with 8gb ram, 1tb HDD, and no OS. I used the old Win 7 COA sticker to obtain an OS then used Windows 10 upgrade. I added an SSD for the boot drive and a GTX 1050 ti slim form factor so I wouldn't have to upgrade the PSU and came in well under $400. I think the PC was $120, $70 for the SSD and $150 for the GTX 1050 ti. It runs most games at med-high setting at or around 60 fps.

I've thought a lot about doing something like this, i'm just worried that since I dont know THAT much about pc building I would end up with some ridiculous bottleneck and i wouldn't even know it

[Slayer3032]

10 minutes ago, Andrizzle said:

I love your brutal honesty *heart eyes emoji*

I'd suggest just grabbing some sort of prebuilt off ebay, tossing a power supply, cheap ssd and a video card into it and calling it a day over pretty much all the overpriced junk on your craigslist. There's a lot of people out there who seem to think people will pay more than they did when it was new after all the fans start to die and it's been drug down a flight of rough concrete stairs by a power cord or something.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-OptiPlex-9010-MT-Core-i7-3770-3-4-GHz-8-GB-RAM-500-HD-Win-7-PRO-64-bit/113326104688

 

Don't take that as a definite suggestion, just grabbed an example off ebay. Some pre-builts also switch around wires and plugs so you can't just stick generic parts into them, something to be aware of before you go that route.